Celebrating International Women's Day with Divine Chocolate

Today is International Women's Day! It's a day set aside to honor the hard working, dedicated, compassionate, inspirational women of the world. Here at Fair Trade USA we are proud to celebrate the women of Fair Trade. Whether it be a single mother on a flower farm in Ecuador or a community leader running a cocoa cooperative in Ghana, these are the women who helped make Fair Trade what it is today.

The guest blog below comes to us from Divine Chocolate, a Fair Trade partner that is celebrating International Women's Day in a very special way. Enjoy!

Today marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. In honor of the occasion, Divine Chocolate is celebrating the incredible women cocoa farmers of Kuapa Kokoo. We’re offering chocolate lovers and Fair Traders around the country an exciting opportunity to support our women farmers while enjoying a bar of Divine Chocolate!

Another Reason Women Think Chocolate is Divine

Kuapa Kokoo is a farmer's cooperative of 45,000 members who supply the cocoa for each bar of Divine. The role of women in Kuapa Kokoo is significant- from their participation in all levels of decision making, their advancement in leadership roles (including having a woman president of the union), and Kuapa's commitment to the economic empowerment of women.

The women of Kuapa Kokoo are trained in small business enterprises such as batik and soap making and the raising of crops for sale in the local market. The women can then borrow from the credit union to make their business operational, allowing for additional income to be earned for the family in the off season.

Economic empowerment not only equips women with the resources they need to provide for their families, it increases their influence in their family and communities. As many Kuapa Kokoo women have said, participating in the women's groups gives them a tremendous sense of pride.

Christiana Ohene-Agyare, the National President of Kuapa Kokoo, once told Divine, “being a member of Kuapa Kokoo has taught me that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do and even better.”

$1 Off for You is an Investment in Women Farmers

Beginning today and continuing through the spring, Divine will be offering special $1 off coupons for our delectable chocolate. For every coupon redeemed, Divine will invest an additional amount of money into Kuapa Kokoo's Women's Fund - to help increase the resources available to women cocoa farmers and ensure that even more women's groups can participate.

Be sure to get your coupon and participate in the Divine Chocolate Women’s Campaign by checking out their Facebook page.

Want to hear first-hand about what it’s like to be a woman farmer in Kuapa Kokoo? Check out this video with Kuapa Kokoo's Comfort Kumeah: